6 Perception and Cognition in Manambu, a Papuan Language from New Guinea

Abstract

[Extract] In many languages of the world, verbs and other expressions associated with perception and cognition form a special subclass in terms of their grammatical features. They may have special properties in terms of argument marking, or require special complementation strategies or complement clauses. Verbs of perception and cognition often have restrictions on forming imperatives, or on taking part in serial verb constructions. They vary in the range of meanings covered. The verb referring to visual perception may also mean 'try', 'taste', or 'understand'. The verb referring to auditory perception may also mean 'obey', 'understand', and 'remember'. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss, in some detail, grammatical and semantic properties of verbs of visual and auditory perception, and cognition, in Manambu, a language from the Ndu family spoken in the Sepik region of Papua New Guinea. At the end, we address the role of visual perception in Manambu cultural practices. We start with an overview of some grammatical features of Manambu.